Maravi

Exhumations bring back gory memories

Exhumations bring back gory memories
Monday, 21 March 2011 01:51 Top Stories
By Kuda Bwititi recently in Mount Darwin

CDE Samson Amisi will forever remember his chilling encounter with Rhodesian brutality. The gaping bullet wounds, the pile of dead bodies sapped of life by rapturous gunfire from the settler forces, and his miraculous escape from a grenade blast, all often confront him in his dreams and deepest thoughts.

Back in 1976, he was a war collaborator, constantly under siege from the Rhodesian establishment for his fervent support of the liberation struggle.

Some time in that year, members of the Rhodesian security forces committed great atrocities by massacring freedom fighters and civilians.

In a subsequent act of inhumanity, Cde Amisi and three other comrades were roped in to carry out the unpleasant task of arranging the dead bodies in a mineshaft in the Chibondo area of Mount Darwin.

But the Rhodesians were not done. As the comrades executed this disheartening task, they launched a grenade, which rattled the shaft and ripped through the pounds of human flesh packed underground.

Cde Amisi was fortunate to survive, unlike his fellow comrades. Cde Amisi was part of a delegation that visited the site last Friday to witness the exhumation of these and hundreds of other bodies. Indelible scars of that fateful day remain fresh in his heart.

“I figured they wanted to kill us so that we would not be able to tell others about the atrocities,” he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

“That is why they threw the grenade inside the pit and I cannot imagine anything more cruel than this. These merciless people exposed me to the gory sight of seeing and piling the bodies of my friends and neighbours.

“Still, they wanted to finish me off using a grenade.”

The 62-year-old is one of the fortunate survivors of the atrocities perpetrated by the settler Ian Smith regime during the country’s liberation struggle.

As the Fallen Heroes of Zimbabwe Trust exhumes the bodies of scores of Zimbabweans buried at “secret sites”, a dark cloud of sorrow still hovers over both witnesses of the barbaric acts and those who learnt about them at a much later stage.

A visit to the mineshaft in Chibondo last Friday evoked sad reflection. The total tally of bodies exhumed had just topped 700. Far much more will be retrieved, as the excavation teams are yet to reach the base of the pit. Five other shafts will also be opened with the excavation teams facing exposure to harmful chemicals, live munitions and the risk of the upper shaft level collapsing on them.

The Rhodesians had hoped to conceal their heinous deeds underground. But it is through survivors like

Cde Amisi that such dark secrets will be revealed to the world.

According to accounts given by survivors, the Rhodesian forces used different methods to kill those tasked to pile the bodies.

The most harrowing included suffocating them by hurling teargas canisters into a given shaft and pouring molten plastic on them.

They are said to have also amputated the legs before thrusting them back into the pit. Cde Phone Chokufare, who also survived the atrocities, could not hold back the tears during last Friday’s tour. As in Cde Amisi’s case, memories of the horror will forever remain a part of him.

“A gun battle erupted at Kapatamukombe Village in Muzarabani and the Rhodesian soldiers won that battle after killing our guerrillas,” he said, as his eyes seemed to wonder to a distant land.

“They then captured four comrades. I was also captured as I was a war collaborator then. They loaded us onto a truck, which we commonly referred to as Puma back then and took us to Mt Darwin (Chibondo area).

“They tortured us, forcing us to reveal all the information we knew about the guerrillas.

“One of them shot three of the guerillas and threw their bodies into the mineshaft. They threatened to kill the fourth if he refused to reveal the information they required. But he would not budge. They amputated his legs and threw him into the pit, leaving him for dead.

“They took me to Guruve detention camp where I was detained for several days before being eventually released.” Yet another survivor, Cde Farisai Makoto, came face-to-face with the trail of terror aged 12.

She lost seven family members — her mother, father and siblings — in a gun battle that also claimed the lives of 75 guerillas and innocent victims who included children. All the 75 were buried in the shafts at Chibondo.

Although 36 years have lapsed, witnessing the exhumations brings both grief and fervent hope that one of her family members’ bodies will be brought to the surface. “I lost my father, mother, three brothers and two sisters during the war and they were all buried here,” she said. “I came here to see their bodies and to give them a decent burial back home.”

She narrated the horrific incident in which they were killed.

“We had gathered for a meeting at Karima Village (located near the Chibondo area) when the Rhodesian soldiers emerged from nowhere and opened fire.

“We later figured out that a sellout had informed them of the meeting because they waited until it was about to end. They listened to our plans all the while.

“They shot at the people like madmen. They fired in all directions; bodies were scattered all over the place and blood gushed everywhere.

“One of my brothers was only three months old and died while strapped to my mother’s back.

“I managed to flee. I was later told, though, that their bodies were taken to Tsakare, which is a fairly large place here in Mt Darwin. I have been here since the exhumations started and I would be very glad to see their bodies and bury them at home.

“That would give me long-lasting peace because at times I imagine they will return as they may have survived the shooting. Yet, I know all too well that they are all dead.” Secretary-general of the Trust Cde Anna Garikai said there were more than 200 mass and 2 000 individual graves in different parts of the country.

She corroborated the survivors’ accounts, saying the survivors were among the key people who assisted in identifying the mass graves after Independence in 1980. “The stories that are told by these people are real. A lot of work has been done to corroborate their accounts,” she said.

“They are critical people as they also helped the Trust identify the mass graves soon after Independence in 1980.” Cde Garikai said the exhumations began in 1980, adding that Chibondo marked the single largest exhumation to date. “For us, Chibondo represents a milestone in our activities because we have been carrying out exhumations since 1980.

“The exhumations that we have carried out since then have been mostly single bodies identified by specter beings,” she said. Trust chairman Cde George Rutanhire said a group of gold panners also came across the mass grave, giving greater impetus to efforts to exhume the bodies. - The Sunday Mail

Labels: MASSACRE, RHODESIA

posted by MrK @ 3:30 AM